Sometimes life lessons are learned the hard way. Maybe you forget to roll up the windows on your SUV, leaving the upholstery to suffer a soaking from the overnight rain. Maybe you left a shopping bag of new clothes behind your seat, only to have them swiped from under your nose. These situations are unpleasant, but they really only affect you.

This is not the case when it comes to cyberattacks and data breaches against your small business. When hackers crack your passwords and leak your files to the wider web, it's your customers, clients, employees, and partners who suffer.

Now, cyber insurance is a failsafe to protect businesses against financial damages brought on by online threats. But the question stands: Do private businesses have a social responsibility to secure their network against cybercriminals? CyberPolicy examines the question below.

Consumer or Product?

Take Equifax, for instance. The credit reporting agency spilled personal and financial data on 145.5 million U.S. consumers. This means that nearly every American adult is vulnerable to identity thieves who are more than happy to compromise their personal information for selfish means.

Equifax's handling of the situation was met with harsh criticism from consumer-protection groups, cybersecurity experts, and the media at large. But it is also important to note that Equifax does not view its victims as customers, but rather as products whose credit history is sold to interested parties. But does that really excuse Equifax from its mishandling of private personal and financial information?

Social Media Woes

We have learned quite a bit about how the Russian government influenced the 2016 U.S. presidential election in recent months. Rather than throwing the number of votes, Russian troll farms preferred to influence American citizens by leveraging social media posts